A message has been sent, and hopefully, a lesson learned...

Romain Grosjean has been handed a one race ban (for the Italian GP in 2 weeks time) and a EUR 50,000 fine for causing the chaotic start to the 2012 Belgian GP.

There was plenty of debate amongst TV presenters and the F1 twitter-sphere over how much blame to apportion to Romain, but just hours after the race, the stewards have laid 100% of the blame firmly at his door.

Starting from the left had side of the grid, Grosjean came across the whole width of the track to run side by side by with Lewis Hamilton on the inside line, before moving further towards the Brit and inevitably causing contact. With both cars then completely out of control, an old skool chain reaction pile up ensued, with Fernando Alonso and both Sauber's becoming innocent victims of the stupidity taking place behind them. I called it an "old skool chain reaction pile up" as we use to see crashes like this in the 1990's and earlier, but the driving standards in F1 seem so much better these days, crashes like that are rarely seen.

(Saw this photo on twitter via http://twitter.com/skysportspete)

There was some interesting views on twitter surrounding the crash. My personal opinion was that a one race ban or a 10 place grid penalty would probably be the likely outcome of a stewards inquiry. Others replied:

Marduhk tweeted correctly: "@enterF1 Probably a personal financial penalty." whilst IreF1SnookerFan suggested "@enterF1 Send him to the back of the grid until he can learn how to start properly". A personal friend of mine, JackD46 made me laugh by tweeting "@enterF1 both… teach him a real lesson! maybe a car awareness course too.. or specsavers?"

Lastly, I found it slightly bizarre that Johnfryer1 said "@enterF1  racing incident, no penalty!" A racing incident? If driving like that goes unpunished in Formula 1, we'll more often than not be dealing with racing tragedies! Today was another real wake up call on safety. I welcome the responses and debate
from my followers, but I'll never fully agree with all of them!

Onboard footage from pretty much all the different drivers left my blood feeling a little cold in my veins. It's a particularly sickening thud from Alonso's point of view and I think we can all count him very lucky not to take some debris in the helmet from the impact. Will closed cockpits ever come into F1? I very much doubt it, but today seriously made you wonder what else, if anything can be done to further protect the drivers.

Punishing the offenders of unnecessary crashes such as these may just be the only option...

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